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SPEEC H 



-BY- 



D." L. EMEESON, OF OAKLAND, 



-osr- 



Oakland 



JUDGED FROM AN 



Eastern Standpoint, 



DELIVERED IN DIETZ HALL, (OAKLAND,) 
NOV. 30, 1875. 



Sin&le Copies, 25 Cents : 5 for $1 OC ; I OO for $ 1 5 OO. 

SEISTT TO J^1SJ^5^ .A.3DIDIIESS. 



Butler & Bowman, Peinters, Oakland, Cal. 

iiT^^ 






rt 




ANNOUNCEMENT. 



The undersigned is prepared to lecture on either one of the 
following subjects, at prices varying according to the time, 
place, occasion and other circumstances: 

Eloqimnce and The Orators; 

The WorlcVs Greatest Orators, Ancient and Modern; 

Elements of Success; 

Popular Errors and Popular Jeudencies. 
To which will soon be added a lecture on * ' Gush " — a theme 
which gives scope for a much greater variety of original thought 
and apt illustration than might at first be supposed. 

He is also prepared to give a course of lectures — either six 
in number or sixty — on the distinguishing characteristics of 
one hundred or more of the most famous Orators, Advocates, 
Divines, Actors, Actresses, Professional Readers and Lecturers 
of Ancient and Modern Times . These lectures will include a 
critical analysis of the style of thought and expression of each; 
also, a comparison of one with another. 

Twenty-five years of earnest study in this rich field for the 
exercise of the critical faculty, render the preparation of such 
lectures less laborious than they would otherwise be. 

The following notices of the Press in different sections of the 
country afford some guarantee that the audiences who may lis- 
ten to any of these lectures will not be required to endure 
the old-fashioned professioncd style; nor yet the scarcely less 
objectionable new-fashioned style of the merely professional 
vocal gymnast: 



11 

[From the OaklatuI Daily Trihwnfi, Dec. 3, 1875] 

Mk. Emkeson'h Lecture — Oakland Judged from an Eastern Standpoint — 

A Masterly Effort by one of our Old Citizens. 

Notwithstiiudiug the heavy rain-storm which j^revailed last nif^ht, Mr. Kin- 
erson was greeted by an audience composed of the most wealthy, learned, and 
appreciative of our citizens, who complt^tely tilled Dietz Hall, some even stand- 
ing in the entry. Mr. Emerson's audacious advertising, and the assiirances of 
his old triends had raised the very highest expectations, and the audience were 
evidently determined not to surrender to the speaker; but he had not spoken 
more than hve minutes before the entire assemblage seemed to say, " we give it 
up." Mr. Emerson spoke one hour and a half , and we did not see a single per- 
son leave the hall: all were held in wrapt attention till the close. The lecturer 
had promised the people of Oakland a great deal — some thought too much 
altogether — but he gave us even more than he ^jromised. Hi.s delivery is char- 
acterized by an utter abandonment to his subject, and it does not seem to re- 
quire the slightest ettbrt for him to pitch his voice, of w^onderfiil Hexibility and 
power, on any key, vising in an instant from the deepest bass to the lightest 
tones of wit and raillery. And his style of composition is equally varied. He 
reasons by means of rigid logic, by illustrations — some of them droll enough 
— by wit, sarcasm and, above all, by forcible jesture. So far as we know, the 
lecture gave universal satisfaction, and if tens of thousands wme published 
for general circulation, they would benefit Oakland immensely . We under- 
stand this is to Vie done as soon as possible, though Mr. Emerson tells as it will 
take some little time to w'rite out the extemporized portions of his speech, 
which was certainly brilliant and grand. 



[Frotn. the Boston Jvnrii/U, Oct. 3, 1872.] 
D. L. Emerson, of California, lectured Tuesday evening in Treniont Tem- 
ple, on* "The World's Greatest Orators, Ancient and Modern." The lecture 
was a masterly production, evincing vast research and preparation. 

'\From the Fittsburij Chronicle, Dec. 3, 1S7(I.] 
Mr. Emerson's Lecture. — The lecture by D. L. Emerson, Esq., last even- 
ing, in the Sixth Presbyterian Church, was attended by a very large audience, 
and was a perfect success in every resiiect. Mr. Emerson is an eloquent 
speaker, and we understand that our citizeus will have an opportunity of hear- 
ing him again on Monday evening next on a popular subject. 



{From the Fittsbury, Pa., Gazette, Dec. 3, 1870.] 
Mr. Emerson's Lecture. — This gentleman's lecture at Dr. Wilson's Church, 
Thursday evening, was spoken of as a splendid efibrt by all who heard it. 



HI 

There was a large audience present, and at the close of the lecture Dr. Wilson 
spoke of it as one of the most instructive and eloquent lectures that has ever 
been delivered in this city. Mr. Emerson will piobablj' speak here again on 
popixlar subjects. 



I Extracts from the Sdv, Frandsco Golden Era, Dec. 17, 1871.] 
His reputation in the lecturing field is too well established to need an ex- 
tended criticism from us. He is now under engagement to deliver the lectures 
he is now preparing on his return to the East, where siiperior talents in this 
field command something more than a mere nominal sum. 

Mr. Emerson's delivery is clear, deliberate and emphatic. A.s a speaker, he 
is noted for his intense earnestness — a quality which includes many others, 
and which contains the chief secret of oratorical success. He has that perfect 
control over a voice of great compass and ptjwer, which many years of elocu- 
tionary training will secure. 



(Letter from Rev. J. E. Moorehearl.J 

Beaveb Falls, April 16, 1872. 
Mr. D. L. Emeeson: — Deae Sib: Having lived much of my time in or near 
Pittsburg, I have had opportunity — and of course improved it — of hearing 
most of the eminent orators of the country. And now, sir, I assure you that I 
have never heard any lecture with which any of the three, which you delivered 
in Beaver Falls last week, will not bear favorable comparison. I hope to see 
your name on the list of orators for next winter, in Library Hall, Pittsburg. 
With kindest regards, I am, &c., yours, 

J. D. MOOREHEAD, 
Pastor Presbyterian Church, Beaver Falls 



(Correspondence of the Pittsburg Gazette.) 

Bbavek Falls, April 13, 1872. 
I am happy to say that we are side by side with you in so far as the lectures 
are concerned. I now speak not of the quantity but of the quality. D. L. 
Emerson, of California, gave us this week three such literary treats as are cal- 
ciilated to make hungry minded mortals glad. Had any of our Committee 
heard his lecture either on "The Elements of Success," "The Sandwich 
Islands," or "Eloqiience and the Orators," California, I am satisfied, would 
be represented next winter in Library Hall. 



Ereatum. — For the word " professional "—first page of this announcement 
-read professorial. 



SPEEC H 



-BY- 



D. L. EMERSON, OF OAKLAND, 



-o*- 



Oakland 



JUDGED FROM AN 



Eastern Standpoint, 



DELIVERED IN DIETZ HALL, (OAKLAND,) 
NOV. 30, 1875. 



Single Copies 25 Cents ; 5 for $ I 00 ; 100 for $ISOO. 



BoTLEE & Bowman, Peintees, Oakland, Cal. 



Eiitf r.'d according to an Act of C'onKi'esfi. in tlic yr.ir a. d. 1.H75, in tin- ottici- <,f tlic Liliraiiau 
of i-'untfi'CKs, at Washiiigioii. D, C. 



JUDGED FROM AN EASTERN STANDPOINT. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — To every one of those who did me 
tlie high honor to come to this place, last Friday evening, and 
wait for my appearance, longer, probably, than any other 
speaker was ever waited for, under similar circumstances, on 
this Coast, I wish, on this occasion, to tender my most profound 
and heartfelt thanks. I was in my room, down on Sixth street, 
Avearied by the labors of the day, supposing that I had made 
such arrangements that the hall would not be lighted up, and a 
little disappointed, I confess, that God should have seen tit, 
just at that time, to pour down such copious Hoods of glorious 
rain; l)ut had I known that even fifty, of the three hundred 
persons then present, were waiting for me here, I would have 
come here and "spoke my little piece" if I had been compelled 
to swim through ice-water! 

Again, I say, I thank you. 

1 have been al)sent from Oakland long enough to enable me 
to look at our fair city through Eastern eyes — long enough to 
see and to realize what rapid strides the city is takiiig toward a 
fultillment of the fondest dreams of the most sanguine citizen. 
And I wish, to-night, to contrast Oakland with one or more of 
our Eastern cities of about the same size, that we may settle 
the question, at once and forever, as to whether the present 
values of our property are founded on a solid gold basis, or 
merely upou the flexible plank of inflation, rotten in the middle 
and not fastened at either end. I intend, also, before I get 
through, to answer the question, pretty eftectually, whetJier 
every owner of real estate in this city, in estimating the value 
of his earthly possessions, may not safely add from 30 to 50 
per cent, to the present market price and wait patiently, if need 
be, for purchasers to come, uatil a suflicient number of insane 



8 

speculators shall have goue down, hopelessly, in the seething 
vortex of wild venture to convince the rest that only redJ prop- 
erty is wealth and that peace of mind alone is happiness. I do 
not come before you, to-night, with a classical oration, the utter- 
ance of whose rounded periods will fall on your ears like the 
sweet strains of artistic music. And, you listen so often to the 
bewitching cadences of your scholars and your orators, that 
a few plain facts, couched in homely phrase, may afibrd a va- 
riety, for the passiiig hour, not altogether unendurable. The 
question is eminently a practical one of vast financial import- 
ance; and I am well aware tliat neither capital nor labor is 
especially attracted l)y the gorgeous tiowers of rhetoric, and 
that the consummate uctiitg of a Roscius would not be regarded 
by an Oakland banker as sufficient security for the loan of a 
dollar. He might, possibly, accept the artistic grimaces and 
the appropriate jestures as collateral security after the first mort- 
gage on his real estate had been tiled for record. And, more- 
over, shrewd business men look with suspicion even on a state- 
ment of facts, when those facts are coated all over Avith alo- 
pathic quantities of sweet epithets. I intend, therefore, 
this evening, to employ plain and even homely words; and if I 
should give utterance to some expressions which s)iiack of the 
'■^ Back-ivoo(h districts,'' as we say down East, I do not want you 
to attribute such expressions to any wish, on my part, to ai pear 
either coarse or rude, but rather to the fact, far less reprehen- 
sible, though quite as unfortunate, that my exrh/ education was 
somewliat neglected. And, in referring to the past history of 
Oakland, which I shall do at some length, if I should seem to 
reflect unjustly on any one of her citizens, I disclaim in the 
outset any such intention. Indeed, I shall avoid as far as pos- 
sible any unwelcome personalities. That distinguished hyx>o- 
chondriac — Josh Billings — says that men love to be "cussed" if 
they can only make money by it; and if I should say anything 
to-night which savors of cursing, I shall do so with the iuten- 
tion of increasing your resources. I will qualify this remark, 
however, — for it is cowardly and mean to be hypocritical — by 
saying that I would not willingly add a single dollar to the 
wealth of any man, or any set of men, who have ever sought 
to cripple and crush Oakland. Such men would be richer 



9 

than they deserve, already, if ^ey were wheeling sand on Al- 
eatraz Island for a pound, per day, of bread and meat. 

Now, lest any of*'you should imagine that I come here, to- 
night, for the purpose of inflating values unduly, I will make 
a proposition or two before I get through, which will convince 
you, I think, not only of my boundless faith in Oakland, but 
also of my willingness to forfeit a few thousand dollars if it 
should happen to turn out that my confidence in Oakland is 
misplaced. Any shrewd financier, on visiting our citj-, will be 
especially impressed with two important facts. The first fact 
is, the unequaled advantages and the supreme beauty of our 
situation; our mild, equable climate, the romantic and sublime 
Scenery, whichever way we turn our eyes, — for the Pacific 
Ocean, lashed by the storm, is not letjs sublime than the snow- 
capped peaks of the everlasting hills — and the peculiar attract- 
iveness and the enchanting beauty of our homes — not oases in 
the midst of the desert, but green hoivers, exhaling sv>'eet orders, 
nestling in the very bosom of an earthly Paradise. This is tlie 
first fact. The next fact which would at once impress and 
startle him is not quite as poetical as the first, but it is certainly 
not less important, and its strange significance is intensified by 
the first. This fact is the low price of business property and 
the small difference between the prices of business property 
and residence property, as compared with this same difference 
in Eastern cities. Let us examine this financial inconsistency, 
for a little while, that we may see clearly whj it exists, and 
thus, at least, be prepared to remove and forever obliterate it. 

While traveling from place to place in the East, I have taken 
the pains to make some inquiries, and I speak far within the 
truth when I tell you that business property in any one of a 
hundred prosperous cities, about the size of Oakland, in the 
Eastern States, will sell, to-day, ^ — -although real estate is in a 
more depressed condition there now than at any previous period 
since 1857, — for nearly twice as much, over and above the actual 
value of the improvements, as Oakland business property will 
sell for. Take any half-dozen cities in Massachusetts — -Lynn, 
La«rrence, Haverell, Wort;ester, FaU River, Springfield, — each 
one of which is a little larger, 1 admit, than Oakland, but 
neither one of which is increasing in numbers, according to its 



10 

populatiou, oue-half as fast as Oakland, aud you will liiid this 
statement of mine to be true, unless, indeed, it discriminates 
agaiiist those cities. Take Worcester, Mass., as a fair sample 
of a flourishing Eastern city. If you could buy 100x100 feet 
of the best property in that city for $100,000 in gold, besides 
the actual value of the improvements, you would have a hundred 
offers, inside of a week, of a very large advance over that price. 
One of the best lots of this size in Oakland Avould not bring, 
I supjDose, more than 170,000. But I found, on inquiry, that 
the price of residence pi-operty in and about Worcester, if we 
except those lots which will be soon in demand for business 
purposes, does not differ very materially from the price here. 
Now, the important question is, why is this so? In the first 
place, this difference is not due to the difference in rates of 
interest. The average rate of interest in Worcester, for the 
last five years, has been as high as 8 per cent. ; the average 
rate in Oakland, during that period, has not much exceeded 10 
per cent. This difference is not due to a difference in the rate 
of taxation. If there is any one question concerning which you 
are a]it to be deceived, it is this single question of taxation. I 
do not remember the exact rate of taxation in Worcester, but 
I do know one fact, and I challenge investigation as to its full 
force and validity, and it is this, namely : that any one of the 
New England States pays a higher rate of taxation than Cali- 
fornia pays, and that an average New England city is taxed at 
a higher rate than Oakland is taxed. Allow me to remind jon 
that if you own*a piece of property there, you pa}' taxes on 
the full value of that property. 

I am ver}' sorry to say that I OAvn a good many pieces of real 
estate in New England, and I will sell it to any of you for 10 
per cent, less than it is taxed for. I don't mean 10 per cent, 
less than it cost me; that I won't do. And, while I am about 
it, I may ^s well own up to a regular Oakland trick and confess 
that if I should sell for less than it cost me, I should have to 
hire somebody to take a part of it oft' my hands ! Of course, a 
v> ry rich man in the East, — one who can aftbrd to pay any 
amount of taxes, — can get a liberal reduction as they do here, 
AVhy not? How do the}- obtain gold to pave the streets of 
Paradise with, if rich men don't take it with them when they 



11 

dieV But, to return; and if you want me to utter the most 
abominable lie that was ever told in Oakland, I will admit that 
this difference in favor of Worcester property is partly due to 
the superionty of that dimnte. Tlie climate there is perfectly 
splendid. We had, last Wintei', twenty-two days of the most 
bracing zero weather, the most hofriM// bracing weather, in the 
city of Boston, during the mouth of February alone; and no 
washer-woman ever cultivated the acquaintance of a hot Hat- 
iron, after nine o'clock at night, more assiduously than we did 
to keep our feet from freeing in bed. "Worcester is a manu- 
facturing city," you will say. Yes, I admit that it is. And if 
you will take your pencil and note book with 3'ou and canvas 
this city thoroughly, you will find a very large nnmber of man- 
ufactories here. But su})pose there were none here, would you 
swap your commercial advantages for Jive times the number of 
Worcester's manufactoriesV I beg your pardon for asking the 
stupid question. One wui'd now as to the patronage of those 
Eastern cities. We often hear it said that there aie more people 
there than here. My answer is that there are more places of 
business, in proportion to the population, east of Chicago than 
there are either in this city or this State. 

Trade is eminently aggressive in the East. You will find 
there the sharpest rivalry between villages and cities. Well, 
what about the debt of Worcester as compared with that of 
Oakland? I do not know how much money that city owes, but 
if any of you will take the trouble to ascertain and you do not 
find that Worcester owes five times as much as Oakland, I will 
pay for a supper, at the Grand Central Hotel, for twelve of the 
heartiest eaters in this city — and I do not know but I would 
say thirteen; and, pai'adoxical as it may seem, other things 
tqaal, cities liourisli in proportion to their debts — provided 
the ruoiiey is welt expended. 

Boston is one of the most prosperous cities on this continent; 
and, except New York, Boston owes nearly twice as much, ac- 
coiding to her population, as any other city on the continent. 
But they don't have any Boss Tweeds, nor any other bosses, to 
any great extent in Boston; and New York has become dis- 
gusted with the one-man power; and I thought I recognized 
just a little of that wholesome kind of disgust in Oakland at 



12 

one or two of your late elections. Oimihroiv the one-man 
power wherever it do/es to show its audacious head ! We have 
had too much of it even in Oakland, but it is not verv popular 
just now. And one word more as to the debts of cities. You 
can Scarcely lind a fidnrlshing city in New England — mark m}'^ 
w^ords, a Jloai'isk'mg city — of the size of Oakland, which does 
not owe a miJliov dollars. And they owe their prosperily to 
their debts. Capitalists fear taxation, it is true, but they fear 
stagnation and death still more; and the best preparation for 
the reduction of taxes is to make such public improvements as 
to attract capital, and thereby increase your resources. Taxes 
in Boston, wdth her enormous debt of $40,00U,000, are not very 
high. But she has something to s/ioiv for her debt. M}' taxes 
in Oakland are not as high, relatively, as they were a few years 
ago when we owed only |80,00U; and I have never yet asked 
the Board of Equalization to reduce them, though I have always 
paid a much higher rate of taxation than some rich men that I 
could name. And it was just good enough for me; I might have 
been rich, too, if I had not taken to lecturing and had been, 
in other respects, sharp. It is not manly for us to whine over 
a little debt of four or live hundied thousand dollars, which 
Dr. Merritt alone could pay out of the net proceeds of one of 
his little side speculations in real estate down by the lake. 
And while I think of it, let me say one word in regard to that 
beautiful sheet of water. Some people declare that that lake 
isn't worth a — dam. But it is worth a dam, and a good dam, 
too; and I hope the City Council will dam it. i^ow, my friends, 
I am not in favor, and never was in favor, of shutting my eyes 
and wading, thoughtlessly, into an ocean of debt; but if this 
city should borrow $200,000, more or less, pat a tunn<il through 
yonder hill, and make a cheap toll road into those vast and inex- 
haustible valleys beyond, she woidd add to her property 
•14,000,000 before you could see daylight through that tunnel. 
And the toll would pay the interest ou the debt twice over. 

Since writing the above, I have ascertained the cheering fact 
that tliis grand enterprise is to be undertaken, at once, by pri- 
vate capital; that the Floods and the O'Briens and their friends 
have come forward and are going to <id<l to Oakland's prosperity 
by snatching this splendid opportunity from her grasp. I do 



13 

not know liow much stock Senator Sharon will take in this 
company, now fully organized; but I do know that the road — 
which is to be a rail road — when completed, will appear more 
beautiful to the people of Oakland than the /o.se of Sharon and 
ihe liUies of the vaUei/s. And an appro^Driation of another 
^100,000 for the encouragement of manufactures in our midst 
would pav us ten per cent, per titoiifh on the investment. 

Now, the simple fact that Ijusiness })roperty is so much higher, 
relatively, in Eastern cities than in this city involves no mystery. 
This is the explanation, and it is easy and simple: Capitalists 
there, as well as in San Francisco, have learned perfectly how 
to make their ground pay rent four or live times over. In 
other words the}^ build high. And allow me to say that the 
architecture even of New York C'ity and of Boston is far less 
elaborate and expensive, but is, on the whole, much better 
adapted to the purposes of trade than the architecture of San 
Francisco. A. T. Stewart's dry goods palace, five stories high, 
is a very plain structure; but no other building on this conti- 
nent is so well adapted to his business as that. And Mr. 
Stewart has managed from the first to make a nice little profit 
of a couple of millions a year out of that improvement, although 
when he commenced the building, one mile above the limit of 
retail trade in dry goods, the enterprise Avas called Steivart's 
follij. But if he was a fool he was not a coward. And a little 
getmine courage, a little doivnright, old-fashioned, New England 
pluck, often makes up /or a woful lack of brains.' Dire necessity 
has compelled me to try it and I speak, therefore, from sad ex- 
perience. The famous Tribune building, tegi stories high, is a 
brick structure. Another building, just completed, on lower 
Broadway, also ten stories high, is built of brick; and no build- 
ing material on this earth will stand earthquakes or fire better 
than brick, if the walls are well tied together with iron. Sim- 
etry, beauty, adaptability, strength, these are the four funda- 
mental principles of architecture. Now, as to the height of 
buildings : S'X-^toxy buildings, in the East, are scarcely higher 
than an average five-story building in San Francisco; and the 
former answer the purposes of trade even better; and it has 
been demonstrated beyond a doubt that high structures resist 
the earthquake shocks much better than low ones. The Wilcox 



14 

block stoorl the great shock of LS68 very much better than any 
other in tcjwn, and the Avails of tliat building are onl)- one foot 
thick; but the Captain has had a little experience with anchors 
in his day, and he profited by that experience, i assure you, 
when he reconstructed that building. One word riglit here as 
to the commercial value of a good elevator which will make its 
round trip every three minutes all day. Such an elevator in a 
five story building 80x100 feet, or larger, does hicreas'' the rents 
of that property from 25 to 40 })er cent., above the cost of run- 
ning it, both in the East and in San Francisco. 

]^ow, fellow citizens, with these facts in full view, listen to 
me patiently while I prove, beyond the shadow of a reasonable 
doubt, that any one hundred feet square, including a corner, 
even on the wroiu/ side of Broadway, Oakland, between Eighth 
and Fourteenth streets, will pay a large interest on $1,000 per 
front foot, besides interest on the cost of the improvement. 
Let us see. 1 am prepared to take the contract to cover every 
sc[uare inch of this space with a sj^mmetrical and beautiful ed- 
ihce, dve stories high and earthquake-proof, with a pressed 
brick front, or some other suitable front, properly ornamented, 
and containing an elevator of the kind just mentioned, for the 
sum of $180,000. This structure will contain a basement 
100x100 feet, two stores in the first story nearly 50x100 feet 
each, and, in the second story, two stores of the same size. 
The three upper stories will contain ninety rooms, any one of 
which will be much more desirable, partly on account of the 
elevator and partly on account of the attractiveness of sucli a 
structure, and for bther important reasons, than the best room 
on Broadway. Now, as to the rent: Basing my calculations 
on the rents actually paid on the wrong side of Broadway, the 
first story will bring $500 per month; the basement will rent 
for $100 per month; the second story will rent for $350 per 
mouth. The best rooms on Broadway bring readily $20 per 
month. We will rate these at $18 each, which, with the elevator, 
are better worth twice that sum than any room on Broadway is 
worth $25. Well, these various sums foot up $2,570 per month. 
The interest on the $230,000— the value of the land at $1,000 
per front foot and the cost of the building, — amounts, in 
round numbers, to $1,917 per month. Deducting this sum 



15 

from the $2,570 and we have left a nice little margin of $7,836 
per annum for taxes, insurance and other incidental expenses. 
Now, if the advice which I am going to give you property hold- 
ers on the wrong side of Broadway is not worth anything to 
you, please remember that it don't cost you very much. Any- 
liow, the advice is that you better not offer again to sell your 
property for Jiftij cemts on the dollar. People will respect you 
just as much if you ask a respectable price for it. If owners of 
real estate on the r'uiht side of Broadway want to barter away their 
birthrites for a mess of pottage, let them do it. We can't help 
it, but we con pltty them and pray for them. And I only reit- 
erate the well nigh universal opinion of our citizens, who are 
the best informed on this subject, when I say that two thonsand 
rooms and fifty stoi'es of the kind above named could all be 
rented here to good tenants long before they can be constructed. 
Am I asked, now, why I, pretending to have so mncli faith in 
the intrinsic value of our real estate, do not, at once, com- 
mence the erection of some such structure? The question is 
eminently proper, and this is my answer. Like some other men 
that I could name, I am not able to erect such an edifice. But 
I will tell you what I am able to do : I am able to submit to 
you capitalists a proposition which will prove my faith in my 
own statements. 1 will sell 100x100 feet of my Twelfth street 
property for 05 per cent, of its actual value, provided every 
square inch of it shall be covered by a three-story building, or 
a five-story building, with an elevator . And if I can have the 
privilege of buying the property back at an advance of $20,000, 
over and above the cost, within two years and a half from the 
completion of the improvement, I will put $10,000 into the 
building; and if I do noi find a purchaser for it at that time 
aiid that advanced price, I will forfeit the $10,000 and $5,000 
besides. I will also submit another proposition, separate and 
distinct from the first : I will take a lease of those premises 
for three years, or foe years, from the date of the completion 
of the building, at an annual rental equal to fourteen per cent, 
per annum on the cost of the land and the improvement. I 
have two good tenants already for the first and second stories, 
and if I cannot lease the upper story to good advantage I will 
open a free school up there and teach little children, as well as 



16 

I know liow, the fuiulanieiital principles and the solemn neces- 
sity of enterprise and enerj^y in all fiinnicial undertakings. 

Now, it any of you have half as much faith in your own city 
as I have, we can make a bargain. I do not ask you to come 
forward and help me — I am not quite as cheeky as that — but I 
do come and offer you at least $20,000 if you will seize an op- 
portunity to help yourselves. 

But I hear capitalists say ' ' Bring us the tenants and we will 
build just what they want; but we don't see where they are 
coming from." Well, suppose you spread molasses on a sheet 
of paper, during the month of August, and then ask where the 
f.'ies are coming from ? While you are discussing that profound 
question, three thousand enterprising flies will be enjoying a 
good square meal right before your face. And, moreover, the 
molasses will make them stick there — just as good stores make 
tenants stick. Or, suppose the owners of this ferry, instead of 
making ample provision for the half million already here and 
the million more soon to come, had exacted a guarantee from 
the City Council that sufficient patronage should be furnished 
them? Or, to show the bifiuate folly in this particular case of 
such want of faith, suppose every woman in this city should 
take a solemn oath that she will never provide another article 
of infantile wearing apparel till tlic child k horn? They won't 
take any such stupid oath; and what is better, the garments 
will not pinch after they are put on. We have just 250 mer- 
chants in this city waiting and praying for larger stores. One 
told me the other day that he waited two years for such a store 
and then had to accept one altogether too small. And how 
long will the stores which they leave remain unoccupied ? Not 
more than three minutes and a halt". But I am met at this 
point, by persons with whom I have conversed, with the extra- 
ordinary objection that the people of this city will not occupy 
such high buildings and will not appreciate good elevators. My 
answer is, prove to me the truth of the following false declara- 
tions and I will admit the validity of the objection. The first 
false declaration is, that the people of Oakland are materially 
dijferod from other American citizens of intelligence and cul- 
ture. The second falsehood and slander is that they love to 
trot up and down stairs better than other folks; and the third 



17 

is that they do not appreciate, as fully as other people, the en- 
chanting panorama which our city presents to one looking out 
of a fourth story. Prove these false statements to be true and 
I will co)isider your objection. Indeed, rooms in the third and 
fourth stories are much preferred even here, especially in Winter. 
The landlord of the Grand Central Hotel, in this city, — which 
would be grand d it were not "central," for its patrons inform 
me that it is grandly kept — its landlord tells me that his rooms 
in the fourth story are greatly preferred even by Oakland peo- 
ple. And with good reason : It is more quiet up there; the 
air is more healthful and the outlook is incomparably better, 
and besides this it would be better for us all, both bodily and 
spiritually, if ive lived nearer heaven. If a man is not able to 
improve his property as he could wish, he is fully justified in 
making temporary improvements as a means to a higher end. 

And, right here, I w^ant to make a frank confession. When 
I built my block of little stores on the wrong side of Broadway, 
above Twelfth street, I was called a fool for supposing that 
trade would ever extend as high up as that. And I ivas one of 
the biggest fools in this city ; but my folly extended in the 
opposite direction. If I had, at that time, erected a three-story 
building 100x100 feet — not of brick then but of wood — I could 
hold up a bag of gold before you to-night containing just 
$20,000 more than I now possess. They say an honest confes- 
sion is good for the soul, but I don't see it exactly in that light. 
Nor am I not quite as complacent as the good deacon was of 
whom I once read. He confessed to his brethren that he was 
a great sinner, and thanked God that he was not ashamed to 
own it. I will make the confession just to please you, biit I 
won't go another inch ! 

Now, I wish to enumerate as briefly is possible, some of the 
main obstacles, which, from time to time, have stood in the 
way of Oakland's prosperity, in order that we may have some 
sort of a valid excuse to offer the new-comer who is enabled to 
profit by our folly. 

Some of my friends have kindly informed me that no man 
can speak in Oakland more than an hour and still be orthodox. 
Now, I want to be orthodox — of course I do — and I want to 
speak more than an hour; and if you will let me do both and 



18 

will hear me through eompletel}' to the end, 1 will make tho 
same solemn promise to you whiih the Irishman made to the 
Lord during a storm at sea. He thought he was going to be 
cast away and he fell down on his knees and prayed as follows : 
" Oh Lord Jasus, if ye will only spare poor Pat's life now 
joost, it will be a Imuj time before he will be throubJing your 
Riverence with his prayers again !" Substitue lecfures for 
prayers, and I am that Irishmaii ! 

When I first came to Oakland our population numbered less 
than 1000 ; and at that time this whole region of country' above 
Seventh street was the most attractive cow-pasture that you 
ever beheld. Then, and for years after, all the travel to Han 
Francisco was by way of the creek route ; and it was consid- 
ered a risky venture to embark on that tedicms journey without 
sufficient food for several meals ; for that bar at the mouth of 
the creek, about as changeable as a hungry hen trying to catch 
a grasshopper, would be very apt to debar us from anything 
like a rapid transit. How often have I seen anxious wives, 
standing on the Oakland wharf and peering out through tlie 
villainous fog, trying to catch a glimpse of their hungry lius- 
hiiiidii stiick in the mad ! But now the Ball has been set in 
motion, his dredger has removed the bar and it is no longer 
a bar to our progress. In a few years the new ferry route was 
completed and it made at first, four round trips a day. And 
when we petitioned for one more trip, we were met with tlie 
discouraging promise that our request should be granted as 
soon as the census taker could record, under oath, twenty-live 
new births in Oakland. No ! that was not the exact promise — 
it was not one-half as encouraging as that . Now what a change ! 
I do not know, perhaps you know, but I very much doubt it, 
a single other ferry in the United States so ample and com- 
plete in all its appointments as this ; and I am sure there is none 
over which you can ride with so much comfort for so little 
money. At that time, also, we had a whole army, both in 
Oakland and out of it who seemed sworn to injure our city all 
they could. No frog-'pond ;4n the United States ever sent up, 
during the month of April, so infernal a din to the delicate ears 
of any nervous invalid as this army of human frogs poured 
into the ears of citizens and strangers in depreciation of our 



19 

unrivaled city. For some unaccountable reason Oakland was 
full of them, San Francisco was full of them, and the country 
all about was full of them. If a people ever had occasion to 
curse Pharoah and pity the Israelites, we were that people. 
If these mtelleciual exclamation points saw a man pacing off a 
lot of land or carting a bunch of shingles across town, they 
would forthwith liarraugue him, with lugubrious countenances, 
on the supreme folly of squandering his hard earned dollars on 
any such a worthless bed of sand. And these croakers, so 
numerous and so persistent, we ought to confess with shame, 
had their influence upon all of us. I tind here a few of them 
now — there are not cluds and brickbats enough on the Pacific 
Coast to make them duck their heads and hold their tongues,^ 
but their croaking is comparatively harmless now — like the 
mumbling of an idiot which everybody is accustomed to, even 
their presence and jargon would be more or less missed. I 
could enumerate the almost insuperable obstacles which we had 
to encounter in the adjustment of our adverse land titles. 
But the recital would be long and tedious and might do injus- 
tice to innocent parties. And it is sufficient for us, during all 
time to come, that the highest tribunals of the land have de- 
clared to us, by solemn decree, that we may now "read our 
titles clear to mansions in " — Oakland, About that time also 
our public schools were in a deplorable condition ; and if any 
member of the City Council had proposed to borrow $900 for 
educational purposes, he would have been unceremoniously 
dumped into the bay by outraged citizens. And I do not know 
what we should have done for public schools, if the first Mayor 
of Oakland, a graduate of Harvard, I believe, and a benefactor 
to our town, had not generously come forward and donated to 
our city a school house worth several hundred dollars ; and all 
he ever received in return for his magnificent gift was only 
about nine miles of our miserable and worthless marshy water 
front— which would sell to-day for 1500,000! 

Now, I do not know of a city on this continent which has 
expended its money so liberally and so judiciously in behalf of 
our system of public instruction. The only danger against 
which I would warn you is that of seeking to imitaie the schools 



20 

of the East by crushing and overwhelming the poor pupils 
Avith a multiplicity of studies. 

Then, the town was distracted for a year or so over the ques- 
tion of a railroad terminus. Tliui question is now settled to 
our entire satisfaction. After that we had a squabble over the 
location of our City Hall. Some wanted it at the Point, 
others wanted it near the bridge on Twelfth street, a large mem- 
ber were determined to have it on one of the plazas down town, 
and an old Frenchman on First street, who didn't understand 
the English language " so besser als goot," supposing it was to 
be a billiard hall for the accommodation of the city officials, 
generouly offered to donate one-half of his hack yard for the 
purpose, together with an alley-way leading in. But the 
building was at length located where it ought to be, and it is a 
credit to the town . Then, two or three men, who were ambitious 
to immortalize their names, exploded a tremendous bomlishell 
in our midst in the shape of a proposition to alter the cit}' 
grade. And forthwith they collected the measuring rods of half 
a dozen surveyors, })iled them up, one on top of another, and 
called into requsition the best microscopes to be found on the 
Coast, ill order to prove that there ivas an inhntessimal differ- 
ence in the length of those measures; and, during the contro- 
versy that ensued one of the most concientious and one of the 
most competent surveyors that ever came to this Coast — and 
that man's name is W. F. Boardman — was shamefully and 
wantonly misrepresented and traduced. But let that pass — I 
beg your pardon for telling this truth — at any rate the one-man 
power prevailed ; the grade was altered, and in spite of the 
temporary set-back the price of real estate continued to ad- 
vance. In the next place a most startling rumor was 
set affoat by some mischievous individual which pro- 
duced a terrific excitement in this entire community. 
This rumor was to the effect that two or three men, nobody 
knows who, living at Oakland Point, or somewhere else, were 
concocting a scheme by which our county buildings were to be 
attached to those slaughter houses in East Oakland, in order 
that — so the rumor ran — cattle thieves might enjoy a very sen- 
sihle foretaste of the delectable orders of San Quinten before 
conviction; and that lawyers and Judges might have a perpet- 



21 

\vA\.olfaclorij demonstration of the solemn necessity of a sure 
and swift administration of justice. 

This was the rumor, and the excitement it produced Avas sim- 
pl}'' tremenaovs. It alienated old friends. It revived for a time 
the old habit, once chronic and poj)ular across the Bay, but not 
so any longer, of sneering at Oakland. I am told it separated 
two or three families — at any rate several divorce cases imme- 
diately followed — and, like the presence of a pestilential dis- 
ease, it made some of us feel sick, when we were well, and 
caused others to think that they were well who were soon after 
taken sick. No earthquake ever unsettled real estate like this 
report. It revived the spirits of the croakers. It opened our 
eyes very Avide to the uncertainties of all things pertaining to 
earth; but when that jail and court house took to themselves 
the Avings of the morning and ilcAV — to the plaza doAvn toAvn — 
we Avere more thoroughly convinced than ever before that the 
Holy scriptures are designed for all classes and conditions of 
men. People in West Oakland might be heard quoting such 
passages as these: " Ihey came to a place where two seas met 
and they run the ship aground;" "Where I am, there shall ye' 
— meaning the county seat — "be also." And God said "Let 
there be light, and there was light." In East Oakland, the peo- 
ple exclaimed, "Oh, ye generation of vipers!" "Ye are of 
your father, the devil, and his Avorks ye do;" "Where the car- 
cass is, there are the eagles gathered together." And now we 
hear the people of both sections sweetly chanting together that 
beautiful prophesy of Holy Writ : ' 'The lion and the lamb 
shall lie down together, and the little child shall lead them." 

The last and only obstacle in the way of our future greatness 
Avas the difficulty of securing Congressional aid in making the 
best and safest natural harbor on this continent available for 
commercial purposes. The securing of that aj)propriation, in 
the face of a hydraheaded and a ti'emendous opposition, Avas a 
signal triumph; and I think that Congressman Page is one of 
the brightest pages in Oakland's history. I confess that I Avas a 
little skeptical about an appropriation for this grand work. 
But our friends in Congress — and we have a host of them East 
— mean business noAv in relation to this matter. The first 
$100,000 has been well expended; the second $100,000 will be 



22 

forthcomiug; a large appropriation will be made tliis AViuter; 
tliej are surveying the route for the new canal, ai;(l we shall 
soon have a harbor which will be worth more to Oakland than 
five times the mauufacturies of Lowell would be to that cit3^ 
And I am informed by one of the largest owners in the Water 
Front Co., who has never yet misinformed me and never de- 
ceived me, that water lots will soon be offered for sale at reas- 
onable prices. 

These obstacles in the way of Oakland's prosperity were very 
formidable; but now they are all overcome. And I should like 
to have some inveterate groioler, some man who possesses a rare 
genius for manufacturing bugbears, mention a single barrier to 
our future greatness and grandeur; and then I should like to 
have a chance at that man for about twenty minutes! The only 
obstacle in our way, one-half as formidable as a moist spider's 
web, is the enormous price of lots oat in the cemetery; which is 
another proof of the intrinsic value of Oakland property. But 
a man need not die in Oakland, unless he wants to, till he is 
rich enough to pay his funeral expenses w\i\\oui feeling it. And 
I will present the best lot there is out there, to any depredator 
of our city, if he loiU agree to die right aiua?j. Such a dona- 
tion would assist, indirecth/ at least, the Ladies' Benevolent As- 
sociation of this city. 

For us, then, the future is secure. We oecupy unequaled 
vantage giound on the great highway of nations. Space has 
been idmost annihilated between here and the East, so that we 
can throw a kiss to our old mothers back in the old homesteads, 
even while we stand so near the islands of the sea and the na- 
tions of the Orient that they can hear us say to them, ' ' Give us 
your varied and rich products in exchange for our gold and our 
grain !" Oakland needs, just now, one or two men who shall do 
as much for mercantile architectu.e as Dr. Merritt and a great 
many others have done for residence architecture. Xwd £ think 
tills want will be supplied. I have been permitted to examine, 
already, the plans of two or three beautiful structures soon to 
be erected off of Broadway, and I am told by one who ought 
to know that the bank folks are soon to commence a magnificent 
building on the corner of Twelfth street and Broadway. I have 



23 

opposed this scheme all I dare; but fighting a bank is uphill 
work, and I have finally concluded to subside. 

Some of the older citizens of Oakland, who had boundless faith 
in her future greatness, are gone; and as I walk these streets, 
musing on the past, 1 sometimes feel lonesome, even at home 
and among friends. I think of Brayton, one of my early 
teachers, a man of gentle, loving spirit, who reminded one of 
the quiet stream that flows sileiitly on toward the ocean, seem- 
ing io feel its way down through the lowlands and between the 
high banks and rugged clifi's, but whose current, nevertheless, 
is steady and strong and irresistible. And I often recall Tomp- 
kins, who resembled, rather, the mountain torrent, leaping over 
oi- sweeping away every barrier, and reaching the level plain 
beyond, before the plodding husbandman is ready for its ap- 
proach. And I remember Shafter, who, during his more vig- 
orous years, swept along like a flood of water, at times a little 
restless and turbid, but overwhelming everything in its way 
by the very might and majesty of its immense volume. And 
Henry Diirant, of blessed memory, alas, what can I say of him? 
What a multitude of thoughts throng the mind at the very men- 
tion of that sacred name ! He was the noiseless river, the rushing 
torrent, the majestic flood and the sublime ocean all in one. 
For five years my beloved teacher — nay, he will continue to be 
my teacher iiWlife shall end — and for many years more one of my 
associates in business, and I may say, without presumption, that 
I was acquainted with e\erj phase of his most remarkable charac- 
ter and familiar with every avenue to his great, sympathetic, 
loving heart. How boundless was his faith in the future of our 
city ! How confidently did he predict that, at no distant day, 
the space intervening between Berkeley and Oakland would be 
filled up ; that our young and vigorous mother — my own cdma 
mother — on yonder eminence, would reach out her arms tow- 
ards her sons and her daughters in the valley below, until, be- 
fore the eyes of all of us shall have become dim, they shall first 
meet, then embrace, then kiss each other ! 

How rapidly is that prediction becoming verified ! But even 
were 1 competent to the task, this is not the time nor the place 
to pronounce his eulogy. Much as we miss these men, we 
would not, if we could, call them back to this scene of turmoil 



24 

and strife. In their peaceful graves they sleep ivdl ^ let 
them rest. 

I do not believe in drawing fancy jnctures ; but I do believe 
we have the logical right to judge I he future bj the past when 
every obstacle in the way of the future has been removed by 
the past. And, in view of this most prosperous and grand 
outlook for our city, I dubn, the nijld to tell you that I see be- 
fore me, in the clear future, our water front lined with ware- 
houses, docks and wharves, in front of which are safely moored 
multitudes of steamers and merchantmen from every clime ; 
that I see along our principal streets costly and spacious edifi- 
ces devoted to trade extending one mile from the water's edge 
and occupying ground which will sell at $1500, $2000 and $2500 
per Irout foot ; that I see the State University containing its 
one thousand students within the northern limit of the city ; that 
I see two thousand charming villas lining the foot hills north of 
the city ; that I see the city stretching out toward the east, ex- 
tending far into the valley beyond ; that I see 200,000 people, 
the most intelligent, the most happy and the most free ; 
and I think I see on yonder height, in the distance, the 
gilded dome of our State Capitol, whose turrets and towers 
are kissed by the rays of a genial sun, and from whose sum- 
mit the fiiuj of onr country, waving in ample folds in the 
tempered breeze, its greeting and its welcome to the stranger 
from every clime, and saying to him, " Come, make this 
your home .''' 



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